Trump asks Boeing for F-18 pitch, citing tremendous cost overruns of Lockheed Martin F-35

[applegrove]

Trump asks Boeing for F-18 pitch, citing ‘tremendous’ cost overruns of Lockheed Martin F-35

By Matt Grady at the Seattle Times

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/trump-asks-boeing-for-f-18-pitch-citing-tremendous-cost-overruns-of-lockheed-martin-f-35/

"SNIP...............


One day after meeting with CEOs from Boeing and Lockheed Martin, Donald Trump caught many by surprise with a tweet that was one part criticism, one part request for proposal.

The tweet, sent Thursday afternoon, called for Boeing to “price-out” a run of F-18 Super Hornets comparable to the Lockheed Martin F-35, whose production he said was plagued by a “tremendous cost and cost overruns.”

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!
5:26 PM - 22 Dec 2016
3,423 3,423 Retweets 11,475 11,475 likes
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Boeing had no immediate response Thursday. This post will be updated as more information becomes available.


.................SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. I wonder if Trump is going to 'come up' with the cost sharing idea that Russia

join up and pay for half the cost of the F 35? Could happen.

[True Dough]

2. I'm sure you know, Applegrove, that Canada chose to go with the Super Hornets

instead of the F-35s. I'm okay with that decision.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/business/international/canada-to-buy-f-18s-from-boeing-to-shore-up-its-fighter-fleet.html

[applegrove]

3. In the interum. I think we still may go for the F 35 at some later date. I wasn't

really paying attention. Too worried about the American election.

[True Dough]

4. Judging by Canada's history of military asset purchases

We'll get the F35s in about 40 years.

[applegrove]

5. Defence is not popular way to spend money in Canada that is for sure. Especially when

something is not built here.

[True Dough]

7. And we have spend several decades leaning on the U.S.

for protection. I'm not as comfortable with that approach now with the orange imbecile taking office, but I cannot imagine Canada building up enough military might to adequately defend itself.

Even if we end up in repeated spitting matches with Don the Con, he would never allow Canada to be overrun. It presents too many strategic nightmares for the U.S.

Now, he may threaten to invade us himself. I wouldn't put that past him!

[applegrove]

10. I'll never forget 9/11. When i got to work in Halifax people who's spouces were in the Navy

were ordered to stand up and get ready for deployment by about 2 PM. We do rely on the US. We owe the USA. We are lucky in that regard. I always say the US public fought the cold war in a way the Canadian public did not. We did not have anywhere near the level of paranoia amongst the public. Of course our leaders tried hard to avoid the cold war all together: it came to light the Soviet Union was spying in Canada and the US due to a cipher clerk in the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa who tried to give the Canadian Government information on that. The canadian leaders he attempted to hand over the information to one afternoon and night in the fall of 1945 tried hard to avoid him and kept it silent for months when they finally accepted the information. That is Canada's role. A little player passive but up to fighting when the cause is good. Called the Gouzenko Affair. Why we fought in Afghanistan and not in Iraq (Prime Minister Chrétien's intelligence briefings said the intel on Iraq they were getting from the US followed no previously known intel patterns - so he said no to war in Iraq - thank god.) Oh I hope Trump doesn't **** with NATO. Or cause war.

[DonCoquixote]

11. er do not forget comrade putin

who think the artic part of canada is russia.

[True Dough]

13. Yeah, that's on our radar

But I'm not sure what the hell we can do about it. Again, we'll have to rely on America to bail us out. Possibly file a grievance with the U.N. over Russia (and China -- China is also laying claim to portions of the Arctic) trying to steal territory that's not rightfully theirs.

Our ice-breaker capabilities are very poor. We have some new naval ships under construction but they are not anywhere near the standard required to ply the High Arctic. That's an area where the Russians are vastly superior.

[uponit7771]

15. That's smart, ... I'm sure they know about the F-35 by now... basically its a work program for

... red states IMHO.

Nothing they expect to fight with in near future.

The F-18 SH is boss in so many ways

[FuzzyRabbit]

6. The F-18 is a 1970s airplane.

Why does Trump think that a 40 year old fighter aircraft is a good idea at any price? The F-18 is a great aircraft, but no match against the new Russian Sukhoi PAK FA T-50 fighter.

[MattBaggins]

8. He is the Siberian candidate

Perhaps he gets a twofer. Weakens our military, yet wraps it up in a shiny veneer of being an elite business genius.

His idiot followers would eat up.

[SticksnStones]

9. He's not the president yet

Can he do this?

[onethatcares]

12. wondering the same

if he can no military contractor can feel safe in signing a contract with the U.S. government. Next president might want to build a flying saucer and cancel the F-18 .

I am not a warhawk and I don't believe we have to keep building killing machines instead of feeding our hungry and housing our homeless.

[spin]

14. The future of fighter aircraft may include unmanned planes. ...

Navy, Air Force to Develop Sixth-Generation Unmanned Fighter
Military.com | Jun 17, 2015 | by Kris Osborn

Navy and Air Force developers are immersed in early conceptual work on a new, sixth-generation fighter aircraft designed with breakthrough technologies and an ability to perform for both manned and unmanned missions.

Few details are available about the new aircraft, called F/A-XX by the Navy, because the early work is at this point purely conceptual, said Rear Adm. Michael Manazir, Director of Air Warfare.

"There is an opportunity to field an unmanned system in the F/A XX program. We are collaborating with the Air Force on the technologies that would be required to operate an air system that gives us enhanced capabilities in the future," Manazir told reporters June 15.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/06/17/navy-air-force-to-develop-sixth-generation-unmanned-fighter.html

The Pentagon Wants Autonomous Fighter Jets to Join the F-35 in Combat
Clay Dillow
Updated: Mar 30, 2016 6:22 PM EDT

The U.S. Air Force Research Lab is moving ahead with an initiative to turn aging F-16 fighter jets into unmanned, autonomous combat aircraft. The pilotless planes will fly alongside the newer aircraft like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Speaking at a forum in Washington, Wednesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work said he expects to see the autonomous aircraft plying the skies alongside manned jets before driverless vehicles enter service on the ground. Work spoke specifically about U.S. Air Force efforts to create autonomous wingmen for its fighter pilots that gave new life to older planes imbued with autonomous piloting technologies and teamed with next-generation aircraft.

"You take an F-16 and make it totally unmanned," Work said. "The F-16 is a fourth-generation fighter, and pair it with an F-35, a fifth-generation battle network node, and have those two operating together.” “Fourth-generation fighter” generally refers to fighters in service from the 1980s to the present day (including the F-15s, F-16s, and F/A-18s that make up the bulk of the U.S. military fighter fleet), while “fifth-generation” refers to the latest generation of stealth fighters like the F-22 and F-35, which are built by Lockheed Martin (LMT, +0.11%).
http://fortune.com/2016/03/30/autonomous-fighter-jets-join-the-f-35/

[IronLionZion]

16. Because every problem can be solved by tweeting about it

Boeing had no immediate response